Mayor's State of the City stresses unity

Large developments needed to bring tourists to Padre Island, he says

Mayor Henry Garrett used his first State of the City address Wednesday
to encourage local community and business leaders to join together in
moving Corpus Christi forward.

"Far too often we are shortsighted because of mistrust,
miscommunication and sometimes by just being stubborn," he said. "What
we need to be is open to communication and instill trust in each
other."

About 850 people attended the speech at the Omni Bayfront Hotel, an
annual event started by former Mayor Loyd Neal. In 2004, about 700
people attended Neal's final address. The address is sponsored by the
Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce and attracts a large crowd from the
business community.

Garrett said he wanted to use his time Wednesday to set a tone for
the future. He also touched on several controversial topics, but did
not take any strong positions as Neal did in his 2003 address on the
high school dropout rate. Instead, Garrett sought to build
consensus.

On the issue of Padre Island development, Garrett said: "Today's
best laid out plans can sometimes be tomorrow's most difficult
discussions."

To make Padre Island a tourist destination will take more than small
developments, he said.

"It will be a large development complex made up of several
individual investors," Garrett said. "Each time one investor makes a
positive economic move, it triggers others to follow suit and join the
growth process."

Regarding the redevelopment of Naval Station Ingleside, which is
being closed by the Department of Defense, Garrett said he believes the
Port of Corpus Christi is the best agency to control the land.

"No entity in this area has a greater ability to make the economic
impact of Ingleside positive than our Port of Corpus Christi," Garrett
said.

Port of Corpus Christi Executive Director John LaRue said Garrett
did a good job in addressing the community's needs.

"It set a tone for what he sees as important," LaRue said.

Yolanda Arevalo, a senior accountant at AT&T, said she
appreciated Garrett's call for unity. It was her first time attending
the address.

"There's so much pointing fingers," she said. "It hinders the
progress we make when people aren't working together."